Ayrshire Scotland Business News is provided by the Elite Ayrshire Business Circle, an association of some of the top companies in Ayrshire. We publicise our members, and celebrate and report the wealth and rich diversity of entrepreneurial and business excellence that abounds here in Ayrshire, south-west Scotland. For further information e-mail Murdoch@eliteayrshire.com

The Elite Ayrshire Business Circle

Tuesday, 19 March 2013

Leading printing company Kestrel Press starts 40th successful year in business

Leading Ayrshire printing firm Kestrel Press is celebrating the start of its 40th successful year in business at its base on the South Newmoor Industrial Estate in Irvine.

Sales director Graeme Ferguson joined the company from university in 1998. Graeme is the grandson of the founder James Moulds, and represents the third generation of the family to come into the firm.

James Moulds’s daughter Pamela McCallum is the company’s finance director, and her husband Colin McCallum is managing director.

Most of the Kestrel Press workforce are long-term employees, 75% of whom have been with the company for at least ten years.

Alisdair Mclean (pictured above) started work at Kestrel Press as a boy, and recently celebrated his 25th anniversary with the firm.

With the decline of Scotland’s manufacturing base, Kestrel Press has had to constantly adapt to changing marketplace in order to continue to thrive.

The company has had to become even more nimble and pro-active in seeking new markets for its services.

Graeme Ferguson commented: “Due to continuing difficult market conditions Kestrel Press has evolved into more than a printing company, and we now see ourselves as a business partner to our clients. Our service and quality are excellent, and we always ensure that we offer value for money.

“We have a long and successful track record of delivering high quality print to a wide range of companies throughout the UK.”

Kestrel Press has also always taken its corporate social and environmental responsibilities with the utmost seriousness.

Last year, the company successfully completed the final stages of achieving ISO14001 environmental accreditation. Kestrel Press now boasts an integrated management system incorporating both ISO9001 and ISO14001.

Graeme Ferguson said: “This was a strategic move for our business to open new markets, as well as being aware of our responsibility to the environment. We have had an environmental policy for many years, but not an official one like this.

“The results were fairly immediate, as our amount of waste going to landfill was cut by 50% in just the first few weeks!

“The renewables market in Scotland is only starting to open up, with opportunities being announced on a daily basis. We want to position ourselves for any potential business that may result from this, and having this accreditation demonstrates our commitment to the sector.”

Kestrel Press managing director Colin McCallum concluded: “At Kestrel Press we recognise that concern for the environment is an integral and fundamental part of our business and, therefore, we are committed to continuous improvement and the prevention of pollution from our activities.

“Our commitment to this was confirmed last year when we made the investment to gain formal recognition of our environmental policies. We have successfully achieved registration to ISO 14001:2004.

“As one individual company, our environmental impact is fairly small. But if every business were to adopt a pro-active environmentally friendly policy, then together we could make a substantial contribution to the future well-being of the planet.”

THE EDITORThe Editor of Ayrshire Scotland Business News is Murdoch MacDonald, a graduate of Magdalene College, Cambridge University, where his journalistic contemporaries included John Simpson, now World Affairs Editor with the BBC, and Alan Rusbridger, Editor of the Guardian. Murdoch MacDonald has been in the public relations industry and a freelance journalist and broadcaster for more than 35 years.He has handled the PR accounts of many top Scottish companies, including Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Life, John Menzies, Kwik-Fit and Barratt Homes.

He has hosted his own family finance programmes - "£s, Pence and Sense" on Radio Forth and "Moneywise" on Scottish Television.He now runs Ayrshire’s top PR consultancy Fame Publicity Services.

Wherever you are in the world, no other public relations consultancy, PR firm or publicity company can offer you a better or more cost-effective worldwide news distribution service, combined with search engine optimisation techniques that will drive customers and qualified sales leads to your company's website.

Murdoch MacDonald is also managing director of the Elite Ayrshire Business Circle, an association of some of the top companies in Ayrshire.Telephone: 01292 281498E-mail: Murdoch@eliteayrshire.com

Murdoch and his wife Lilian (pictured above) have written a book called "Phoenix in a Bottle", describing how they overcame alcoholism and are now, contrary to conventional wisdom, able to drink alcohol responsibly again. "Phoenix in a Bottle" is published by Melrose Books price £16.99 and is now available worldwide.Reviewing the book, eminent American addiction expert Dr Stanton Peele PhD commented:

“Phoenix in a Bottle is a modern version of The Days of Wine and Roses, and tells the true story of how two people who entered a period of desperate drinking stayed with one another in a close loving relationship, and emerged from their alcoholism able to drink responsibly again.

“Both a wonderful love story and a challenge to conventional wisdom about how people can recover from drinking problems, Phoenix in a Bottle gives people hope, and helps them to confront their own demons - alcohol or otherwise.”

And now "Phoenix in a Bottle" has been selected as a set text by a top American university.

“Phoenix in a Bottle” by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald will now be required reading for all doctoral students in a psychology programme at Alliant International University in San Diego, California.

Alliant International University, headquartered in San Diego and San Francisco, California, was formed in 2001 by the merger of the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) and the United States International University. Alliant has 6 campuses throughout California and also runs programmes in Mexico City, Hong Kong and Tokyo. The California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant is one of the premier psychology schools in the US, and it counts roughly half the licensed clinical psychologists in California as its alumni.

Dr. Gary W. Lawson is Professor of Psychology at CSPP. He says: “I adopted Phoenix in a Bottle because the dilemma this couple struggled with and the questions they ask themselves are like so many others I have encountered in 35 years of clinical experience treating addictions.“However, nowhere in addiction literature have I seen these issues examined and explained as well as Lilian and Murdoch do in Phoenix in a Bottle.“I also recommend Phoenix in a Bottle to many of my patients as well.”

You can buy "Phoenix in a Bottle" by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald online now direct from Amazon UK (click on book cover image below).